Vivien Stern begins this article by remarking that criminal justice policy in the United States and many other Western countries appears to be taking a punitive and exclusionary direction. Yet, she continues, there are different and encouraging developments in countries of the former Soviet Union, South Asia, and Africa. To substantiate her perspective, Stern surveys statistics on incarceration in the U.S. and other countries, which she then compares with criminal justice alternatives being developed and tried in Canada, countries of the former Soviet Union, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.